Three Indisputable Truths About United Ways

In our experience working with over 140 United Ways over the past 30 years, we have certainly learned a lot. We have probably learned many more than three truths, but these three truths have repeated themselves time and time again.

#1: The More Things Your United Way Does, the Less People Understand

Over time, it seems like United Ways keep doing more and more things. They are constantly adding programs and funding new initiatives, seemingly without ever saying “no” or stopping something else. The challenge lies in the ability to communicate all the things that you do and all the people you can help. Perhaps the first time we encountered this truth was working with Pamela Beckford, the now retired executive director of United Way of Wells County (Bluffton, IN). Pamela would say “If you try to be everything to everybody, you're nothing to anybody.” Pamela also shared this gem of wisdom: “It is better to be known for one thing than to be known for nothing.”

We can back up both of Pamela’s statements with the results from our research with local United Way donors. For a United Way addressing education, income, and health, when we ask donors “What issues does your United Way address?” no more than 15% of their donors would be able to name education, income, and health. However, when we ask donors at an issue focused United Way “What issues does your United Way address?” about 80% of their donors are able to name their United Way’s issue such as poverty, kindergarten readiness, or homelessness.

You have probably been to a restaurant that has a big spiral-bound menu – many pages with an endless number of items from which to choose. Restaurants with exceptional food, service, and atmosphere, are not restaurants with a big spiral-bound menu. When you think about the best meal you have ever had in a restaurant, it was most likely at a restaurant with a limited menu, perhaps only one page, with a small number of items.

A United Way with a spiral-bound menu of activities rarely becomes known for any of their work. The large number of messages required are impossible to communicate effectively. United Ways with a limited menu become known for their work because it only requires one or two messages to clearly communicate their work. Our research has found that repeating one or two messages over the course of time (more than a year) significantly increases donor understanding of United Way.

#2: Donors Support Your Results, Not Your Programs or Processes

Every donor wants to know how their contribution makes a difference. They want to know how people’s lives have changed for the better because they gave to United Way. Donors have little to no interest in the details of your allocation process or how your 2-1-1 program operates. Plenty of United Ways detail how their processes or programs work in excruciating detail, almost as if they were describing how sausage is made. I think of this quote from Otto von Bismarck: “Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made.”

If your United Way funds programs and does not have any programs or initiatives of your own, then you need to show how your funded programs have changed lives. This is challenging for United Ways to do because sometimes partner agencies just can’t produce any meaningful results for you to share, or because donors will look at the results of your funded programs and think “Maybe I should just give directly to that partner agency because they are doing such good work.”

If your United Way has your own initiatives, then use results from your initiatives. Although numbers can be helpful in communicating results, some of the best results I have ever seen from United Ways are stories of people whose lives have changed. It does not take a lot a stories, in fact one good story may be all you need. Take this one step further by only sharing a story about one of your United Way’s programs or initiatives. Remember truth #1!

#3: Cutting Costs has Never Raised More Money

One of the consequences of declining workplace campaigns is that United Ways are forced to make difficult decisions about partner agency funding. Instead of reducing partner agency funding when the workplace campaign comes up short, United Ways will cut their own costs (most often staff because that is their single largest cost) to be able to maintain partner agency funding levels. When a United Way cuts staff, it makes it even harder to raise more money the next year because there is less staff capacity and capability.

Often United Ways are under the impression that maintaining lower administrative costs will somehow convince more donors to support United Way. What we know from research with local United Way donors is that only 4% of donors, on average, checked their United Ways administrative costs before giving. Despite what you may think from people who ask you about your administrative costs, the vast majority (96%) of your donors are not influenced by your administrative costs in the slightest.

Another place cutting costs has not helped United Ways to raise more money is mergers. In nearly every single case where a merger has resulted in less staff, the amount of money raised has not increased. By looking at 990 forms for the pre-merger United Ways and then looking at the post-merger United Way, there are plenty that have lowered costs but not raised more money. 

The solution to raising more money has nothing to do with your costs, and everything to do with your results. Remember truth #2!

Now That You Know the Truth

Put these three truths to work for you by carefully considering what your United Way does, what results donors are willing to support, and what it will cost for your United Way to generate those results. Issue focused United Ways don’t struggle with these truths because they address one issue such as poverty, high school graduation, or hunger. They may fund several programs, but their work is very focused around their issue and people get it. Issue focused United Ways measure their results by the number of lives changed. These are the results that donors want to see. Donors rarely (never at some issue focused United Ways) ask about administrative costs because all of their results speak for themselves. And that’s the truth!